Nettle stings, bramble cuts and big chub in small waterways...

Well the back end of storm Bertha brought heavy rain over the weekend hence the water levels across the country rose and the majority of rivers got a much needed boost in oxygen and a wash through at the same time. Busy on the Sunday after the rain had passed I was intrigued to see how the small water way I have been targeting would react to these increased levels. Speaking to Andy who knows the waterway like the back of his hand suggested that it would still fish well. Arriving at the small overgrown water I was amazed by how clear it still was in comparison to a similar small Nottinghamshire river that I walked on Saturday that was chocolate brown, in comparison the new water looked stained like tea and in the narrower parts was pulling through. Heading upstream to where I had previous seen chub holding it was clear that this stretch was not holding the number of fish I had previously see here. At a guess I don't think the streamer weed was providing enough cover and there are no large features to create back eddies or slacks for them to sit in.

Moving back down stream I kept the polaroids on in the hope of seeing a dark shadow or flash of silver but this didn't happen. The search turned to feature finding and specifically somewhere the chub could sit out of the main flow whilst still being able to pick free food items in the current. Moving down into a swim that had slacks either side of the main flow. Climbing through the nettles and brambles I trickled in sections of lob worm, some held in the far bank back eddie whilst others fell short in the main flow and disappeared down stream rapidly. Picking up a chublet and small perch in consecutive casts on a free lined lob worm I was confident that I had located where the fish were laying up. Wanting more control in how the bait was presented I moved onto a stick float approach with shot low down the line to get the worm to the river bed. This is an approach I hadn't done for a good 5 years; mounting a Drennan 5 No.4 stick float onto 8lb Supplex, I dropped hook size to a 14. Swinging the float and lob worm hook bait out into the far eddie it moved back around towards the small weir feature and then into the main current. Holding the float back, the float made it 10-12 meters down stream before sinking away, striking as the fluorescent orange tip dipped into the stained water, the rod hooped over as I connected with a good fish. It hugged the river bed and used its flanks in the main flow to strip line off the drag. Guiding the fish into the eddie on the far bank I made progress though as soon as it charged back into the current the rod would hoop again and line would be stripped off the reel. Bringing the fish (what was now clearly a good chub) up the eddie on the near back she flirted with the net twice before I finally had her under control and landed. Resting her in the deep net she was soon ready to be photographed. A real result given the conditions and once again my water craft had paid off in locating the fish. The nettle stings and bramble cuts become worth it when lumps like this top off the evening. I didn't bother recasting as I had achieved all I wanted to from the session and a new best on the new waterway.